What the heck is a Darbus?
by carmsfic
Summary: Buffy rushed home to face Sweets only to encounter a Darbus? Sequel to Sweets Back?


Disclaimer: I don't own anything. They are all the copyrighted properties of Disney and Mutant Enemy and whoever else have rights to them. Please don't sue me.

Buffy walked into her house with a defeated slump to her shoulders. The case containing the scythe hitting the floor her way to the master bath and into a hot shower but she didn't care. She had just gotten back from East High and finished dealing with the issue there. It had been a very long week. It started with a call from Dawn about the return of the singing demon Sweets. As it turns out it was nothing more than a different type of incubus one that feeds on the emotional upheaval and for a demon of that type there is no better place than a high school to feed upon their prey.

They confronted the Darbus demon and managed to find out that she has been at the high school since the early 90's and never has anyone been hurt by her presence or her spells. She even claims to have helped resolve some of the issues that normally plague teenagers in a manner that is highly effective. Darbus explained that she has layered the whole campus with runes that encouraged the student population to express their feelings in a musical number when the pressure got to be too much and the expended energy from this musical numbers are filtered through the runes and create an energy matrix that she can feed upon. Once the students finish the song or leave the school the idea of a musical number being the way to resolve their issues is shunted into their subconscious the only thing they retain is the positive effects of resolving said issue. The runes also act similarly to others who either participated or watched one of these musical numbers they would forget and leave the school with a positive experience regarding the whole situation.

Normally the musical numbers are small and are usually solos but since the arrival of the new girl, Gabriella Montez, who ironically is a budding slayer/witch activated by the spell, the effect of the spell is exponentially multiplied and there were more outbreaks of random musical numbers in the school. The only once who might retain their memories are people who are not only familiar with the supernatural but ones who have been a target of a similar spell before. Since the pool of people who fit that particular category is particularly small she thought she was free from detection until the Scoobies and the rest moved in. Even then it took almost a month before they even noticed something was amiss. Buffy and the Scoobies spent most of the past week conducting past research and were able to prove some of what Darbus has said. Since she has started teaching at East High over 12 years ago the amount of violence in the school has dropped, the amount of teen age pregnancy has also dropped and overall the school has one of the highest average in standardized testing in the state. They have also noted that quite a few of the alumni have gone on to be very successful members of the community something that Darbus claims credit for because she said to have helped them get over their petty human insecurities. Relieved that Sweets is not making a comeback Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies kept a vigilant eye for any escalations. They had hoped that the final number that occurred after the basketball game would be enough to keep the rest of the student outburst into minimum and they were also relieved to know that Darbus had accumulated enough emotional energy to last her until the end of the school year and that she has agreed to place the spells into dormancy until further notice. Buffy also made sure Darbus knew the score and should any of the students get hurt because of her doing her head would be quickly separated from the rest of her body. Assured that the demoness will keep to her end of the bargain she brandished the scythe in the general direction of the Darbus demon and decided to attend the game.

Once the happy group singing was complete she packed up and headed back home for a well deserved rest and recuperation, hopefully without any random show tune numbers. Overall it had been a fairly peaceful situation the only casualty was her shoe which was destroyed while sneaking around the backstage and she accidentally stepped into a bucket of paint. It just wasn't fair. The shoes were innocent they didn't' deserve that.

**Authors Note:

To those who have not seen High School Musical Mrs. Darbus is the Drama teacher and Drama Club Sponsor. She often wore such colorful and outlandish outfits that would be perfect camouflage for say extra extremities and other demon like features. It was short and sweet and it was thanks to Bellec who shared with me a link to the SNL skit featuring Zac Efron. That little skit triggered this little drabble. I doubt if I will revisit this little storyline and anyone who might be interested in it is welcome to it please just let me know where you post it.


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